LAS CRUCES - It's too soon to panic, but progress is a must for the New Mexico State football team on Saturday in a rematch from last year's historic Arizona Bowl win against Utah State.

Saturday's game is in Logan, Utah, rather than a neutral field and the Utah State Aggies are coming off an impressive close road loss to then No. 11 Michigan State last week.

NM State is 0-2, banged up on the defensive side of the football and the Aggies offense has scored a total of 17 points in the first two games.

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New Mexico State linebacker Terrill Hanks
Las Cruces Sun-News

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New Mexico State quarterback Matt Romero
Las Cruces Sun-News

The result adds up to another difficult game to start the season. Utah State was a 23-point favorite on Friday afternoon.

Aggies head coach Doug Martin has challenged his team to play more physical in the 10 days since the Aggies' 48-10 loss to Minnesota.

"They (Utah State) have a very experienced team and their coaching staff has some continuity to it and that is the stability to sustain greatness," Martin said. "We are trying to find ourselves and get an identity for this team instead of worry about what happened last year."

Get the game to the fourth quarter

The Aggies haven't been competitive into the fourth quarter yet this season.

It's worth noting that getting the game to the second half would be an achievement. Through two games, the Aggies have been outscored 34-3 in the second quarter.

If the NM State offense can score between 20-25 points on Saturday against Utah State, that would be a step forward that the Aggies could build on when the schedule gets a little easier the next three weeks.

In order to do so, the Aggies need to both protect quarterback Matt Romero and begin to create some room for a running game that has generated a total of 43 rushing yards on 15 attempts (2.9 yards per carry) from the running back position.

Martin has made a change up front this week, swapping the right side of the offensive line to move Sebastian Anderson inside to right guard and moving Isaac McClain to right tackle, where he started all 13 games last year.

Perhaps shuffling players up front will spark the Aggies ground game to life and cut down on the four sacks per game the Aggies have allowed to start the season.

"You have to keep getting first downs and have some consistency," Martin said. "That is what killed us (against Minnesota) were the dropped passes that killed every drive. You have to give yourself opportunities to run the ball and that's staying on the field and being good on third down."

Third down on both sides of the ball

Martin noted that the Aggies have faced 21 third and long situations this season.

Of the 30 third down plays the Aggies have had through the first two weeks, the Aggies have converted just five times (16.7 percent). The Aggies were 44 percent on third down last season.

"You are not going to sustain anything if you keep doing that," Martin said. "We are not playing well together as an offense and it's that physical nature. We got a little better on offense, but we are not where we need to be."

Defensively, the Aggies are allowing teams to convert on 40.6 percent of their third down opportunities. Last year, Aggies opponents were 30 percent on third down.

An improvement on third down would solve a lot of the Aggies' problems, keeping an overworked and undermanned defense fresh and allowing the Aggies to start putting points on the scoreboard.

Improve defensively against the run

Defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani isn't making excuses for missing nearly half of his starting lineup last week against Minnesota.

The Aggies missed 23 tackles for 240 yards on the ground against Minnesota. So while injuries are a concern for the Aggies on Saturday as well, that shouldn't stop the Aggies from executing if they are in position to make a play.

NM State has allowed 303 yards rushing per game on 5.8 yards per carry. Part of the reason the Aggies were so improved last year was they were respectable against the run (NM State allowed 166 yards per game on 4.2 yards per carry), which allowed Spaziani to send pressure and sack the quarterback a school record 43 times.

The Aggies have yet to record a sack, although pass rusher Cedric Wilcots II will return after missing the first two games due to academics. Malik Demby practiced this week after missing last week's game due to injury, but middle linebacker Javahn Fergurson is doubtful (knee) and weak side linebacker Leon McQuaker (leg) is unknown.

Billy Nipp will likely start at middle linebacker and Johnathan Hood will start for the thrid time on Saturday if McQuaker does not play.

"It's a fundamental game and the only thing that is going to correct it is going to be a little more of a sense of urgency," Spaziani said.

Sports Editor Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.